Intrusive Advertising

The Personal Digital Companion – what a marvellous tool for communicating, keeping notes and staying on track for those important appointments. A Troubleshooter depends on his PDC as a portable portal into the digital world of Alpha Complex. Naturally, service groups like HPD & MC and PLC make the most of access to PDCs as a personalised channel for unobtrusive and carefully selected advertising.

I just installed an advertising widget from Amazon.com that generates a tag cloud of products relevant to the page content. I dropped it into this blog, so I would envisage the occasional PARANOIA product turning up – but, who knows what keywords the widget might latch on to. As a multimedia device, the widgets on a PDC could do something similar – responding to the way the Troubleshooter uses the device and the environmental inputs recorded (sights, sounds and so forth). Take the PDC into a firefight and you can expect to see product placement ads for Gyrostabilizing All-purpose Flux Fortifiers and Laser Barrel Extenders. Grumbling about the lack of food – PLC might send you a coupon for 3 credits off a Hearty-Hearty Brick Loaf or CruncheeTym Yeast Twists. Just returned from a secret meeting with your secret society contact? How about an Acoustic Interferometer or a 2-for-1 offer on TempWipe memory suppression drugsâ€¦ oops – hang on! You could have sworn you activated the ComDat Secure for Sure PDC cloakware. So, how comeâ€¦

Suddenly, what seemed like an ideal companion suddenly seems less secureâ€¦ and whatâ€™s with the BotBuster Cone Rifle shells when youâ€™re a member of Corpore Metal? What has your PDC been picking up that would have caused that? It wouldnâ€™t be another member of your team, would it?